Friday, May 28, 2010

Brooklyn College Blocked From Paving Community Garden

Before the reprieve: gardeners at last week’s farewell party to a community garden on the campus of Brooklyn College. (Photo: Julia Gillard for The New York Times)

BROOKLN

Updated, 4:46 p.m. | Paradise is safe from paving, for now.

A judge has temporarily blocked Brooklyn College from paving over a more-than-6,000-square-foot community garden on its campus to make way for the expansion of an athletic field. A hearing on the issue is slated for June 25, according to the New York Times.

Campus Road Community Garden, near an entrance to the college, was founded in 1997. The college drew criticism when it said that as part of its expansion of a decrepit athletic field, it would destroy the existing garden, in part to make way for parking spaces.

Though college administrators promised to build a new garden in its place, that did not mollify the gardeners, who complained about the new design, and the fact that it was less than half the size of the old garden.

But at the last minute, Andy Snyder, a social studies teacher who also uses the garden, cobbled together a nine-page petition with the help of two students and advice from a lawyer.

The gardeners argued that the state Dormitory Authority, which had found that the project would have no adverse environmental impact, needed to file an Environmental Impact Statement that would “accurately address the true environmental impact of this planned and imminent destruction of a precious community resource.”